France Wants Its Share of the Iraq's Large Market

"Les entreprises qui m'accompagnent sont venues avec la ferme intention de développer leurs activités en Irak", a déclaré le premier ministre, estimant qu'il n'y avait "aucune raison que nous ne retrouvions pas la qualité de la relation économique qui était la nôtre" dans les années 1970-1980, lorsque la France était le partenaire privilégié de l'Irak de Saddam Hussein.

Last summer, shortly after American departure from Iraq's cities, François Fillon paid a surprise visit to Baghdad as a salesman (VRP), accompanied by several business tycoons (the heads of Total, EADS, Schneider, Suez, Lafarge, Veolia, etc), under Le Monde's blaring front-page headline, France Wants Its Share of the Large Iraqi Market.

Not much to say about that — unless it be Nouri Al Maliki's comment, which ought to sound bitter to some ears:

"Nous ne partons pas de zéro. Nous reprenons, nous retrouvons une longue histoire commune", a-t-il dit.

As for Plantu, his joke is more about the sorry state of the opposition Socialists in France. Still, notice his (typical) assumptions (via the cartoon Fillon's words):

"Democracy must be rebuilt" as if nothing had happened since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, as if three or four elections — the first ever in Iraq — had not taken place.

"Here there is no opposition" as if it was only France's arrival that will bring democracy about…